where should I focus while striking an opponent?

by Justin Hammer
(Texas, United States)

Specifically when I am striking the Kote, should I still focus on the eyes of my opponent's eyes or should I be more concerned with my strike location?

Or should I just trust my bow will land properly (assuming a good amount of training).

Answer: Thank you for your question! That is a good question.

OK. Have you heard Enzan no Metsuke? You should look at your opponent as if you were looking at far mountains.

You should not look at the target where you are striking because your opponent will know where you are striking.

Your example is a kote strike so I am going to use that example.

You are looking at your opponent but not only his/her eyes but as a whole.

Just like driving a car. If you focus on a sign, you might not be able to see pedestrians coming from your side. That is very bad so you try to get as much info as possible into your eyes, hence to your brain.

You should practice to strike without looking at kote not hoping that you could get that. You have 100% of your confidence that you could do it without looking at it.

To do so, of course, you need to know your own distance. If you just strike from wherever you are, then you are quite likely to miss it. So you should be in your striking distance for kote and you can get it without looking at it.

Your eyes should be on your opponent so you can respond to your opponent after your strike; whether or not you get it.

Probably at the beginning, you have to check how far your oponent’s kote is so you can execute your strike successfully.

And gradually, you can keep your eyes away from the target and strike it without looking.

Hope this helps.

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